I haven't talked to an agent yet but this came up during one of the Hunter Ed classes I teach.

A lot of outdoorsmen load a turkey sound or deer grunt sound on their phone as a ring tone. OK. now here is th delima. In Missouri you can not use artifical electronic calls during the hunt. You are in your Turkey blind and your buddy calls you. The hen purrign sound alearts a big ole Tom and he comes running to your decoy. BANG and you have your Thanksgiving Turkey. Was that legal. I think it would depend on the agent if one question and you were not intentially using the phone to call in the game. But other agents wouild probably thow the book at you.

You can have cell phones in possession, but can't use them to aid in taking deer. (at least in MN) I think that is generally the case everywhere. I think they are talking about use during deer drives, or giving heads up on sightings that may be headed in a partners direction. I have always wondered how they monitor that though? I know DNR can hear walkies/2way radio, but to monitor texts or cell phone calls??? I don't know. I believe it is wrong to use them in that fashion anyway.

They are great to keep everyone updated on situations, or to give news of a harvest!

cell phones and 2 way radios are a great hunting tool also, my wife and i use them all the time, except when trying to reload my muzzloader in a pinch and she asking me what i shot at , at that time i would like to sling it in the weeds.
But if your in trouble i cant of anyone i would like to talk to but my wife!
jim

Joel, you're right on the money when it comes to the definiton of "aid".
In Ohio they are only illegal if you're using them to the detriment of the deer, letting standers know the deer are coming, etc.
My father and I use them but only from a safety standpoint. we both bowhunt from climbers and fixed tree stands (rarely are we on the ground) and we'll check in about every hour to make sure we got up in the tree OK, make sure one of us isn't falling asleep, and also to let each other know if one of us is heading back to the truck.
Never have we used the radios to the detriment of the deer.

Here in Iowa it is illeagal to use them to aid in taking deer. The group that I hunted with during our shotgun season would use radios to let each other know when all the pushers were in place. After that we would not use them again until it was time to round everyone up and head to the next farm. The DNR officers that patrolled that county had scanners and would keep tabs radio users. Our use of radios was only questioned once during a routine stop for licenses and tags when the officer noticed the radio screwed to the dash of one of the trucks. Once we explained to him the purpose that they served to us, as a safety device to make sure that we knew where everyone was when the drive started and there was not a hunter in a spot that he was not expected, he was fine with it. Looking back I think that we got lucky, I think that regulation like so many DNR documents, are extreamly gray in nature and partially left to officer interpritation. If the officer wanted to he probably could have used them to ruin our season.

Cell phones I believe are great for safety if you hunt alone. If you don't want people to bother you, you can always silence the ringer, and you would still have it incase of an accident.

A cell phone to me represents EVERYTHING I go into the woods to escape from. If I had to carry one, I'd just as soon not go at all. I hate the damn things.

If I die out there, then I died on my terms, and after watching my parents rot away in a hospital bed like my mother, and my father in a home incapacitated by strokes, dying in the woods doing what I love doesn't seem quite so bad.